


Necromancy and Other Extreme Sports

by sqacey



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Animancy, Gen, Necromancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 16:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12868317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sqacey/pseuds/sqacey
Summary: When your best friends choose to become necromancers, something you didn't even know existed before they did it, what do you do? If you're Jared, you team up with the sister of the kid that your friends were originally trying to bring back in order to stop them, and become Animancers in the process.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally for nanowrimo, but I never finished it. So, I'm going to post what I did write here and do oneshots within this universe from there!

It’s not like they meant to be necromancers. It started as just a childhood game, you know, messing around with a ouija board. Everyone knows that ouija boards are just the users subconsciously moving the planchette, it’s not ghosts. Ghosts don’t exist, and even if they did a kids toy should not be able to contact them.

So, when Jared’s friends decided to pull out the Ouija board one of them got for their eleventh birthday, he shouldn’t have been freaked out when they supposedly contacted their classmate. The classmate who had died just two months before. But he did freak out, because Alana and Evan both insisted that they weren’t forcing it to say what they wanted, and even though they had their fingers loosely on the planchette and were on the side Jared was moving it to, the object resisted when Jared tried to force it to goodbye. Like how you’re supposed to banish spirits in the game. He should have been more concerned when both Evan and Alana wanted to keep playing the game. He should have been more concerned when they started looking up more ways to contact the undead.

He wasn’t concerned, because ghosts aren’t real. They just wanted to believe that they were talking to the dead kid, trying to find out how he had died. But if that was possible, people would use it to contact deceased relatives they hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to. Everyone he asked said that ouija boards are fake, a kids game, they laughed when he asked if they could actually be used to contact the dead. So, ouija boards had to be fake. An object that is mass-sold in order to terrify children on Halloween by claiming you’ve summoned satan or some other incredibly dangerous demon, and nothing else.

Jared can list all of the ways other summoning methods are fake too. Crystal balls are definitely fake, and most crystal balls probably aren’t even real. Mirrors also don’t work. Say spirits are real, why would a ghost want to see itself in a mirror? Jared didn’t want to look at himself, why would a spirit want to? Also, apparently spells can be used? Magic isn’t real, so that’s out. 

Jared just watched as they excluded him more and more, casting him out because he wasn’t interested in ghosts or contacting the dead. He watched them spend more time together without him. He should have been there, to keep them from falling too far down this rabbit hole. But he was not there. He wasn’t there, and he lost his best friends. His only friends.  
He should’ve seen the signs. He should’ve stayed with them and tried to talk them out of it, but he didn’t because he didn’t think it would even work.

So now he just had to try and stop them from getting any further. He had to keep them from putting everyone in danger. He couldn’t think about a scenario where either Evan or Alana died. He didn’t want to think about them dying. So he researched ways to stop them.


	2. Chapter One

“Zoe, check this out.” Jared leaned back in his chair, stretching out his arms above his head in an attempt to relieve some of the pain that came from sitting hunched over his computer for hours on end. He let his arms fall back down to his side and picked up his computer before spinning the chair around to face Zoe. He read a line aloud from the page he had open.

“Some say that Animancy is the direct opposition to Necromancy. Animancy is based on the concept of life and healing, opposing Necromancy’s darker aspects. However, Animancers should be wary when facing a Necromancer, as Necromancy will always be stronger.” Jared finished, looking up at Zoe. “Zoe, this could be how we save them!” He watched Zoe’s reaction.

“Jared, there’s two of us and two of them, and Necromancy is stronger.” Zoe took Jared’s laptop and scrolled down the page, “It’ll help, but I don’t think it’ll be enough.” She handed Jared back the laptop and twisted a strand of her hair around one finger nervously. Jared held his laptop and kept looking through the page.

“Yes, but we’ll have defense if we ever have to fight them.” Jared watched Zoe’s upset reaction to him saying they might have to fight Alana and Evan. “I know, Zoe. I don’t wanna fight them either, but if it comes to that I want to be able to protect us.” Jared hated thinking about fighting his friends. He knew it might come to that, no matter how much he hated the idea. He wanted to protect himself, because those people weren’t that Alana and evan that he knew. That he had been friends with for years.

“Okay, fine. Let’s try it.” Zoe grabbed her own laptop and started to look up Animancy. It was interesting. Using it, one could learn to heal wounds and cure some illnesses. Apparently it used a lot of energy to cast any kind magic through it, but it could be worth it. Jared was doing his own research on his laptop, looking up how to get started.

One of the recommendations was being anywhere outside. The strongest was in distant forest or meadows, far from civilization, but parks were just as effective to practice. Jared stifled a laugh- Evan would’ve loved Animancy if Jared had told him about it before he’d been pulled into Necromancy. It was all about harnessing nature and life to help you with magic.

“Zoe, do you have clay anywhere?” Jared looked up at Zoe suddenly. Zoe nodded, “Yea, probably.” She set her computer down on her desk, “Why?” She began searching through her room.

“We can try something now.” Jared highlighted a block of text with his mouse, “Animation, the ability to animate inanimate objects. Seems simple enough.” Zoe made an affirming noise as she build out a brick of red sculpey from a drawer in her desk.

“Do we do this outside?” She held up the clay for Jared to see, “After we shape a creature with clay?” Jared nodded, closing his laptop and standing up, motioning for Zoe to lead the way outside. Zoe closed her laptop before picking it up, holding the bag of clay in one hand as she led the way to a park near her house.

They set up their laptops in the shade underneath a tree after sitting down in the grass. Zoe split the clay into two balls and handed one to Jared before starting to sculpt something with her own clay ball. 

Jared started sculpting a small dog- Evan’s favorite breed, he realized after he was almost done. It was a very simple sculpture, but he wasn’t focused on the small details. Just enough so you could tell it was a dog. Zoe sculpted a bird, wings open wide. She wanted to see if she could make it fly around, whereas Jared just wanted the clay dog to walk. They read the passage on animation, learning how to make it work properly and reading the common mistakes made by first-time magic users. 

“Ready?” Zoe cupped the small clay bird in her hands, readying herself. She closed her eyes to focus solely on the weight of the clay. She opened her hands slowly, eyes still closed. Jared watched the bird, waiting for any movement. He saw a wing flick slightly. He watched the clay figure moving just a bit, wings fluttering. It stood up in Zoe’s hands, wings trying to push itself in the air.

“Zoe, you’re doing it!” Jared’s exclamation made Zoe open her eyes. She was smiling, watching the figure move in her hands. And then it stopped. She lost focus in her excitement, so the spell ended.

“That was… really cool.” Zoe stared at the now stiff figure, almost not believing that she had made it move. “Your turn! I don’t think I can do that again for a bit, I’m tired now.” She set the bird down on the side of her laptop and watched Jared cup his dog figure in his hands.

The figure started moving, though it took a little bit longer than Zoe’s did. It pranced in circles around Jared’s open palms, making one lap before Jared lost focus and it once again went stiff. He suddenly felt extremely tired, like all his energy had been drained. Maybe they’d get more stamina the more they practiced, but right now they could only use a few small spells before feeling too drained to go on more. Larger spells were out of the question.

But it was a start. They were just starting out, and they successfully animated two small figures. And they’d get more powerful as time went on. They could do this. They could stop Evan and Alana. It’d just take time.

“I should get home.” Jared held his figure in one hand, closing his laptop, “Meet you here tomorrow?” He stood, tucking his computer under his arm. Zoe nodded and packed her stuff up, “Yea, definitely. I’ll bring some more clay so we can get some more practice in.” 

“Sounds good!” Jared smiled before starting to walk in the direction of his house. The clay dog in his hand was stiff, but he swore he could feel a heartbeat coursing through it for just a moment before the feeling vanished. He pushed it off as a side effect of it being animated, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of it being alive for just a moment. It wasn’t alive, just animated temporarily. They couldn’t cast magic to make their clay figures become alive, not yet, anyways.   
Jared tightened his grip on his laptop as he got closer to his house. He let himself in, noting that it was empty. His moms weren’t home, probably got caught up at work or something. That was fine, he could take care of himself just fine. He was almost an adult, after all.

Jared set his laptop down on his desk and sat on his bed. He stared at the little clay figure he held in his hands. He knew he was tired, but he wanted to try again. He stared at the figure, trying to focus on making it move again. He watched it start to shake, tail wagging back and forth. It walked forwards, towards the edge of his hand. It jumped from his hand to his bed, then walked across his bed to his end table. Then it stopped, falling still once again.

And then Jared passed out, falling backwards on his bed. He had expended too much energy in animating the figure and exceeded his limit of magic. He didn’t notice his parents walking in and covering him with his blanket later on that night. 

He didn’t wake up until the next morning, when his mom shook him awake because he slept through his alarm.


	3. Chapter Two

Jared pushed himself up, rubbing his eyes. He struggled to remember what had happened last night before he passed out. He looked around his room for a moment before his eyes landed on the little clay figure, now standing, completely stiff, on his desk. He remembered getting it to walk there before he passed out.

 

Jared shook his head as he stood and started to just change his shirt. No one would notice if he wore the same pants, and he honestly didn’t care enough about changing them. It was his senior year, he didn’t care anymore.

He shoved everything school related into his backpack, and hesitated a moment before shoving the figure in his bag as well. It was solid now after being left in the air all night, so it wouldn’t get squashed by everything else in his bag.

He started heading to school.

 

Jared wasn't looking forward to school today, but he hadn't since Evan and Alana stopped talking to him. He still saw them from time to time, in classes and in the halls, but they never talked to him. Or anyone else but eachother, for that matter. It got easier once Jared befriended Zoe, but he still felt alone. Zoe was a year younger, so they really didn't share any classes. He relied on lunch to talk to her.

 

“Jared!” Jared saw Zoe running up to him, gripping her messenger bag tightly, “I did some more research- apparently animancers can conjure things as they get better.” Jared nodded, “That's really cool.” He looked at the ground for a moment, “I learned that we can pass out if we overuse magic.” Zoe's smile fell.

 

“Jared, you can't overexert yourself.” She rested a hand on his shoulder, “You have to be careful, overuse of magic can be deadly.” Zoe removed her hand. Jared nodded, “Yea, I know.” He looked towards the school gate, “I won't do it again, promise.”

 

The bell rang as they finished talking.

 

“See you at lunch, Zoe.” Jared started walking towards his first period. He heard Zoe's affirmation as she headed towards her own class.

 

Jared saw Evan as he headed to his own first period. They shared the class, but neither  of them spoke to each  other anymore. Evan would ignore him, so he didn't even bother with trying anymore. It wasn't worth being ignored.

 

Jared sat down in his seat and pulled his laptop out from his bag. He used a word document to take notes now, so he never bothered bringing notebooks with him.

 

Jared left the word document up in the background when he pulled up Google. He already knew most of what the class was, and anything he didn't understand he could teach himself. Right now it was more important to look up Animancy. He had to stop Evan and Alana from getting any stronger and potentially killing themselves in the process.

 

He didn't notice Evan leaning over his shoulder until Evan spoke.

“You shouldn't try to oppose us.” Jared jumped and looked at Evan. He could've sworn Evan's eyes were solid black for a moment, but when he blinked they were normal once more. When Jared went to say something, Evan was back to sitting normally. Ignoring him once more. Jared just shook his head and went back to his computer, not thinking too much of it yet. As long as he and Zoe didn't attack the Necromancers, they wouldn't hurt them.

 

Jared bookmarked pages as he found them, things that he and Zoe could try or things they should look out for. Dangers of Animancy, or things from Necromancy that they can't counter were the main things he was bookmarking.

He'd send the links to Zoe after class for her to look over.

 

Jared switched back to Word on his computer before he reached down to pull the clay dog from his bag. He set it on his desk gently, carefully making sure that it was stable before removing his hands from the figure. Jared began working on blocking out everything around him, all of the background noises, everything he could see around him. He focused solely on the figure, focused just on controlling it. He told it to take two steps forward. It did. He told it to sit down. It did. He kept controlling it, giving it commands that it would carry out instantaneously.

 

He slowly started to let background noise and images filter back through, continuing to give the figure commands.

It was only when the teacher called his name that he lost focus and the figure went still. His teacher had asked him a question, which shattered his focus on making the figure move.

 

“Uh, what?” Jared wasn’t sure of the question. He heard a few kids snicker. “I said, Jared, what were the main causes of World War One?” His teacher responded. Jared hunched down lower in his seat, his face burning. He could not remember the answer, he was never able to keep the causes of wars straight in his head.

 

“Uhm.” Jared struggled to name one, “The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria?” He hoped that was right, and judging by his teachers nod, it was. “Very good.” The teacher went back to writing on the board. Jared breathed a sigh of relief. He moved the figure away from his computer and began actually typing up notes for today's class.

* * *

 

Jared met up with Zoe at lunch, beneath a tree in the middle of the courtyard. He started telling her about the events of his day so far, about how Evan told Jared that he shouldn’t be trying to stop Evan and Alana, and how Jared was able to control the figure for a longer time than yesterday. He omitted the part about passing out after overestimating his ability last night. Zoe didn’t need to know about that, she’d only just lecture him about taking better care of himself.

 

He wanted progress, they needed progress, if they wanted to save Evan and Alana from themselves. Progress sometimes includes taking risks.

 

“I was experimenting a little too,” Zoe was looking at her bird figure. She cupped her hands over it and looked up at Jared, “I was able to control it for about two minutes while simultaneously holding a conversation.” She un-cupped her hands and Jared watched the figure fly up a short ways before falling to the ground. “It can’t seem to fly up high, though.”

 

Zoe picked up the figure gently, “Do you feel like,” She was looking at it again, “like something in you _snaps_ when you’re disconnected from the figure?” Jared nodded. When he lost focus on the dog, he felt like something that tethered him to the figure was severed. “I couldn’t find anything on why, just other people who’ve experienced it. No one is sure why.” Zoe returned the bird figure to her bag and pulled out her lunch so she could start eating before her afternoon classes.

 

Jared followed suit, grabbing his own lunch and his laptop from his bag. He brought up the pages he’d bookmarked for Zoe to see. He ate as he went through the pages, showing her the most important ones first.

  
They kept this up until the bell rang, signalling that it was time to pack up and head to their afternoon classes. After that, they could head to the park to get some more practice in before they had to head home.


	4. Chapter Three

Jared met up with Zoe again at the end of the school day, just outside the gates. Now that the school day was finished and done with, they could practice Animancy some more at the park. It’d had only been one day, but it was clear they were getting better quickly. 

They started walking towards the park, neither of them really talking with each other on the walk. Each was thinking about this, how they were trying to prevent Evan and Alana from harming themselves or others by doing magic themselves. Animancy wasn’t illegal like Necromancy was, but it was still strange to think about. And, well, now they were definitely on opposing sides. Both Zoe and Jared were hoping that it wouldn’t come to them fighting Evan and Alana, but in the back of their minds they knew the possibility was there. It was there, regardless of what they wanted to believe.

Jared sat down underneath the tree they were at yesterday and pulled his laptop and his dog figure from his bag. “What are we going to try today?” He watched Zoe sit down next to him and pull out some more clay for them to use. 

“Let’s try animating something bigger?” She handed Jared a handful of clay and kept the rest for herself to sculpt with. Jared began his sculpture, continuing with his theme of sculpting dogs. Zoe seemed to go the same route, as she was sculpting a larger bird with a longer wingspan relative to the bird’s body.

When they finished their sculptures, each nearly double the size of the first, they started to focus on animating them. Jared went first. He set the larger figure in front of him and started blocking everything out but the sight of the figure. He focused on feeling a sort of bond that stretched between him and the figure in front of him. He directed a quick command at the figure, telling it to move backwards.

It listened.

He started giving it more commands to follow, getting more excited with each success. Jared stopped. He saw a string, or rather two, intertwined, of a blinding light stretching off from him into the distance tighten and grow thinner. He saw another one stretch between him and Zoe. A thinner one between him and the figure. 

Jared barely registered Zoe shaking him, calling his name, as the figure stiffened and the light faded. He couldn’t breath. He couldn’t breath! Jared called out for Zoe as he passed out, falling backwards, making Zoe have to reach out for him and keep his head from hitting the ground.

Zoe was watching him, worried. She didn’t know what just happened, just that his eyes had appeared cloudy just before he passed out. She ended up calling for help when he didn’t get up

Jared opened his eyes to the ceiling of a hospital room. He could feel his hands shaking, feel Zoe’s presence next to the bed.  
“Jared, what happened?” Zoe looked shaken, “You just, passed out.” She rubbed her eyes. She had been crying, Jared could tell. He pushed himself to a seated position so he could look at her. 

“Zoe, I-” He wasn’t sure how to explain it, “I don’t know.” How could he explain it. At least, he couldn’t explain it here. He couldn’t talk about what he had seen before he passed out here. Not in a hospital room. They’d have to be somewhere more private before he could talk about it. Honestly, he didn’t want to talk about it, but Zoe had to know. Maybe she could help him understand what had happened, what he had seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter of the nanowrimo uploads! Please comment what you thought, it's a great motivator for me,


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